Britney Spears has joked that she walked out of a recent X Factor USA auditions because she was following fellow judge Demi Lovato's lead.

It was reported earlier this week that Britney, along with Simon Cowell, Demi and L.A. Reid decided to walk away from a drag queen who failed to impress the judges with her version of one of Britney's hits.

Revealing that her departure from the panel was because she was following Demi, Stv.tv reported the star saying: "I was following her. I was taking her lead. She was like, 'Let's go,' and I was like, 'Okay.' It was our break anyway. It was dinner.''

Stating the reason why she had to walk away from the audition, Demi told a FOX Network source: "I felt really uncomfortable, and I had to walk away. He [thought] that [he did] such a good job, and I felt so bad. I laughed at first, but I felt really bad.''

Branding the performance as "horrible", L.A. Reid added: "Oh, my god, it was just horrible. He thought he was going through. He thought that the cheers were because he was doing such a great job, when the truth is he was horrific. We just couldn't take it anymore.''